Posted on 08/19/2005 1:02:07 PM PDT by SmithL
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Echoing similar comments from President Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said "intelligent design" should be taught in public schools alongside evolution.
Frist, R-Tenn., spoke to a Rotary Club meeting Friday and told reporters afterward that students need to be exposed to different ideas, including intelligent design.
"I think today a pluralistic society should have access to a broad range of fact, of science, including faith," Frist said.
Frist, a doctor who graduated from Harvard Medical School, said exposing children to both evolution and intelligent design "doesn't force any particular theory on anyone. I think in a pluralistic society that is the fairest way to go about education and training people for the future."
The theory of intelligent design says life on earth is too complex to have developed through evolution, implying that a higher power must have had a hand in creation. Nearly all scientists dismiss it as a scientific theory, and critics say it's nothing more than religion masquerading as science.
Bush recently told a group of Texas reporters that intelligent design and evolution should both be taught in schools "so people can understand what the debate is about."
That comment sparked criticism from opponents, including Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean, who called Bush "anti-science."
Frist, who is considering a presidential campaign in 2008, recently angered some conservatives by bucking Bush policy on embryonic stem cell research, voicing his support for expanded research on the subject.
Frist said his decision to endorse stem cell research was "a matter of science," but he said there was no conflict between his position on stem cell research and his position on intelligent design.
"To me, I see no disconnect between that and stem cell research," Frist said. "I base my beliefs on stem cell research both on science and my faith.
You know, I am not certain if there is a creator or not, I have an interest in it, but the condescending attitude and christian bashing I see here is no different than I would see on DU or other lefty sites. When I see that kind of bullying, I cant believe this is a FR posting.
Believe it.
The hatred and intolerance of many in the pro-evolution crowd toward Christians who beleive the Bible is neither surprising nor new.
It doesn't bother me one bit. These people discredit themselves with this sort of nasty rhetoric and are an embarrassment to their side.
Besides, you can relax, the ACLU, DemoRat party and moonbat protesters will never allow ID in the school.
Exactly. Right Wing Professor should find comfort in such company.
No it was accepting Christ as my Savior and believing the Word of God.
Your insults and name-calling don't bother me one bit.
As an ex-evolutionist and atheist I was once just as bitter and hatefilled as you are toward believers.
By the way, I was converted more than 30 years ago from atheism and evolution at the same time and haven't doubted the truth of what I believe for one minute since then.
I'm tired of fundamentalist Christians playing the victims in these threads. They are in power and are trying to force their mysticism on everyone else through their absurd ID campaign. They deny physical evidence and cry when they don't get equal time in a field that relies entirely on physical evidence. "Evolutionists" - a strange term indeed for someone who accepts the reality of our world - have endured much more bashing than Christians, and frankly, those who deny the earth is as old as it is and that species mutate deserve the little ridicule they receive, particularly when they demand to be taken seriously as a science.
And Evolution in modern mythology class.
Only thru inference, just like the faith of Evolution.
Totally unsuccessful.
2) How many scientific theories are dependent upon an unquantifiable and unknowable power that is impossible to observe or predict?
Zero.
You absolutely can infer their lives and their epochs. You cannot infer their evolution, only their existence.
But their epochs of existence have an elaborate structure, a succession of forms, and this pattern of succession constitutes ipso facto evolution. This is what Gould and others have referred to as the "fact of evolution". Of course, the theory that this succession is accounted for by "descent with variation and selection" does remain a theory, even if a well supported theory.
Do you mean to suggest that all the transitions in this elaborate structure of succession of forms were accomplished by some kind of extra-natural intervention? Somehow I don't think that is what "Intelligent Design" is aiming at.
The scientific method does need to posit natural cause in order to form a working hypothesis but research method does not equal reality. As an example, the chemist must posit a chemical reaction in order to form a working hypothesis in chemistry. This does not mean that reality is limited to chemical reactions, he is just limited by his research method. The same is true of the natural sciences as a whole.
There are many reasons to reject the existence of the supernatural, but these are metaphysical propositions, not science.
Just as the expectation that the sun will rise tomorrow is a metaphysical supposition.
Same old avoidance of the issue, you claim an absolute right, because you consider your position to be absolute fact. The left Winger considers his position to be absolute fact. I happen to think neither of you hold the whole truth.
You being a scientist should have the resources to research the studies.
Yeah, it doesn't matter if someone has an agenda and Darwinism is just wrong.
This is because the NATURAL sciences assume it naively, or at least only concern themselves with the NATURAL as opposed to the supernatural. The unique success of this point of view has very "naturally" pushed the supernatural to the margin.
And claiming that Darwin is the Super Evolutionist doesn't make evolution science either.
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